The Sporting News Archives
Adding More to Your Replay
Getting Into Your Replay
Ever have trouble really getting into your baseball replay project?
One of the best ways to overcome boredom and tedium is to read original media articles from the era you are replaying.
This can include all sorts of things, from official guides to daily newspapers to fiction from the era. Even old advertisements are fun to read.
For most of the 20th century, though, there was one weekly publication that shone above all the others: The Sporting News.
What You’ll Find
There are always surprises in The Sporting News, including a lot of things that you probably never thought about.
For example, take this article on attendance expectations amidst talk of a recession from April 20, 1949:
Now, we usually associate this era of baseball history with rising attendance marks, which then started to dip down as cities began their decline in the 1950s. However, the optimism here is invigorating and refreshing.
You’ve also got some real interesting takes from celebrities — including this bit of wisdom from new Yankee manager Casey Stengel:
By the way, Stengel’s scoffing at “bunting clubs” probably doesn’t bode well for me and my late-game habits.
Some features later turned into larger books. You might recognize this from Gene Mack, for example:
These features became so popular that they were eventually updated and compiled into this book — which, sadly, is long out of print.
Covers
I remember seeing covers of old issues of The Sporting News on the walls of baseball card shops when I was a kid. You’d see things like this:
Actually, though, pre-1962 issues of The Sporting News had cartoons on the cover as a rule. You can find some real gems just by looking at the front page — stuff like this from May 1948:
How To Access
The Sporting News archives are all at Paper of Record.
You might be able to subscribe directly. For some reason, when I tried to subscribe using a credit card last year, the payment wouldn’t go through.
If you run into this problem, don’t worry. You can get a slightly limited subscription to Paper of Record with a SABR subscription.